Court refuses to order referendum rerun

A seven-judge Supreme Court has unanimously refused to order a rerunning of the 2012 Children’s Referendum after finding a Dublin woman had failed to prove an unconstititional government information campaign “materially affected” the yes outcome.

The court yesterday clarified the test which must be met for a challenge to a referendum or election result to succced, warned of an “inevitable danger of partiality” from government information campaigns which differ from those of referendum commissions and stressed the need for “every conceivable care” to be taken to ensure fair running of referendums.

Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell said “unacceptable interference” with the will of the people arose from the Government’s information campaign in this referendum involving an unlawful spending of €1.1m of public money on a one-sided campaign favouring a yes vote.